One effect of the Vietnam War on the United States was to lower the
voting age to 18. Schamel, an education specialist at the Education Branch,
National Archives and Records Administration, introduces the 26th Amendment.

The slogan "Old Enough to Fight, Old Enough to Vote" reflected
the mood of both the public and its leaders when, in the midst of the
Vietnam war, the right to vote was extended to 18 year olds. Codified
as the 26th Amendment to the Constitution, the joint resolution was passed
by Congress on March 23, 1971, and ratified by the states by July 1--more
quickly than any other amendment in U.S. history.

Getting the resolution through Congress took a great deal longer than
getting it ratified by the states. Beginning in 1942, Jennings Randolph
of West Virginia introduced the resolution in every Congress through the
92nd in 1971. Real momentum toward the extension of the vote began after
the negotiation of the peace accords for the Korean War, when President
Dwight D. Eisenhower supported Randolph's proposal to extend the right
to vote to those "old enough to fight and die for the United States."
Presidents Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard M. Nixon added similar endorsements.
It was not, however, until the pressure created by the antiwar movement
of the 1960s intensified that Congress finally passed the Jennings proposal
in 1971.

Legal developments during the 92nd Congress caused Congress to seek a
constitutional amendment to lower the voting age. In 1970, Congress attempted
to lower the voting age to 18 through legislation. That legislation was
challenged in court in Oregon v. Mitchell.
Because the Constitution gave states the power to establish most voting
qualifications, the Supreme Court upheld the statute as it pertained to
federal elections but declared the act unconstitutional insofar as it
pertained to state elections. Since most of the states required voters
to be 21 years of age, this decision would have necessitated separate
ballots for federal and state races in the same election. With this complication
unresolved, the Presidential election of 1972 would, no doubt, have been
not only very expensive but also chaotic. According to Dennis J. Mahony,
political science professor at California State University, San Bernardino,
"The rapidity with which the Amendment was ratified is attributable
to a general desire to avoid such chaos."

The Amending Process
In Article V of the Constitution, the founders described a process for
amending the charter in such a way as to balance two conflicting goals.
On the one hand, they wanted to devise a process easier to use than that
employed under the Articles of Confederation. At the same time, they wanted
to ensure a process that would work only when a strong consensus made
it clearly necessary to change the Constitution.

With these opposing goals in mind, the delegates to the Constitutional
Convention in 1787 created an amendment process composed of two sets of
alternatives. Congress could either propose amendments backed by two-thirds
majority of both of its Houses or call a convention to propose amendments
at the request of two-thirds of the state legislatures. Afterward, the
proposed amendments had to be ratified by either three-fourths of the
state legislatures or by conventions in three-fourths of the states. With
this process, the Framers attempted to balance the need for adaptability
with the desire for stable government.

Since 1789, when the process became the law of the land, more than 5,000
proposals to amend the Constitution have been introduced to Congress,
but only 33 have ever received the necessary two-thirds vote of both Houses.
Of these, only 27 have been ratified by three-fourths of the states. Change
is possible but extremely difficult to enact, thereby meeting both goals
of the founders.

Expansion of Voting Rights
At the time the Constitution was written, most eligible voters were white
male landowners. Since then, voting rights have slowly expanded as a result
of various amendments that abolished restrictions based on race, color,
previous servitude, gender, or failure to pay taxes.

The 15th Amendment extended the vote to black males, the 19th removed
barriers to the ballot for women, and the 24th abolished poll taxes. Although
the 15th Amendment was adopted shortly after the Civil War, real freedom
to vote was consistently denied to black Americans for decades through
intimidation by violence, cheating at the ballot boxes, and legislated
disenfranchisement in the form of poll taxes and literacy tests. Not until
the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s galvanized Congress into
action to protect the voting rights of all U.S. citizens did black Americans
truly enjoy the freedom to vote.

The story of the passage of the 19th Amendment relates a different suffrage
struggle. First introduced at the Seneca Falls Women's Rights Convention
in 1848, the amendment opening the ballot box to women was not proposed
in Congress until 1870. For almost 50 years, the battle to get the proposal
approved by Congress was unsuccessful. With the outbreak of World War
I, attention focused on the contributions women made to the war effort
in the workplace. Afterward, women successfully argued that if they could
work to defend the country, they also deserved the right to vote. Congress
was persuaded to approve the amendment in 1919, and it was ratified on
August 26, 1920.

The President's Role
The Constitution makes no provision for the President to take part in
the amendment process. But in the case of the 26th Amendment, President
Nixon held a ceremonial signing of the certified document on July 5, 1971,
inviting three 18-year-olds to add their signatures below his. No doubt
Nixon's decision to publicly endorse the amendment was based on the popularity
of the action--indeed, all states had ratified the amendment by July 1--and
the recognition that adoption of the amendment enabled approximately 11
million new voters to participate in the national elections of 1972.

Response of Young Citizens
Congressional leaders and others expressed great confidence in American
youth during the debate over the 26th Amendment. Senator Randolph described
Americans between the ages of 18 and 21 as "educated, motivated,
and involved." Furthermore, he added, "Young people are aware
of the world around them and are familiar with the issues before government
officials. In many cases they have a clearer view because it has not become
clouded through time and involvement. They can be likened to outside consultants
called in to take a fresh look at our problems."

Senator Birch Bayh of Indiana observed, "The surest and most just
way to harness the energies and moral conscience of youth is to open the
door to full citizenship by lowering the voting age. Youth cannot be expected
to work within the system when they are denied that very opportunity."
Senator Bayh also proclaimed, "Passage of this amendment will challenge
young Americans to accept even more responsibility and show that they
will participate."

Many political observers at the time predicted that high numbers of young
voters would register and vote, thereby having a profound effect on U.S.
electoral politics. The fact is, however, that 18- to 20-year-olds have
participated at a significantly lower rate than the general population
in every election until the Presidential election of 1992.

Source: Social Education, Volume 60, Issue 6, October1996.
Copyright 1996 National Council for the Social Studies